Top 25 Freya Ridings Quotes

Songwriting really anchored me.

I realised, however, that you can’t sing when you’re playing the violin – or at least I can’t – and as that aspect of performing is important to me I shifted to the piano.

I’m on a group chat with my dad which he named ‘Dearest Daughter’. It’s so sweet because I don’t think he really understands that a group chat normally has more than two people but I love chatting with him in it anyway.

That’s the best thing about being with an indie label, it feels like a family. If it’s a major label, they put so much pressure on every single.

I find an apple before singing really, really helps… It’s like there’s something in the pectin in the apple that helps get rid of vocal clicks.

At school I was really heavily dyslexic, so I really struggled academically with reading and writing.

I followed my gut and my subconscious told me the kind of music I wanted to create. But it wasn’t easy.

At the age of 11 I did my first open mic show, and it was one of those lightning-bolt moments where I suddenly found what I wanted to do.

I’m obsessed with American talk shows.

I never went out to make the music that people would like. I mean, I tried, because every teenager tries to do that. But in my heart, I’d always come from gigs where I played upbeat guitar covers and I’d start writing sad songs on the piano.

I was quite a different child, I felt isolated. In time, that level of being with yourself crystallises who you are, and you can see what other people are without being blinded by what they want from you.

All of my music teachers gave up on me one by one because I couldn’t read music.

I was brought up in a bohemian household where my dad plays guitar and my mom plays piano just because they love it.

The thing with ‘Lost Without You’ is that for a long time I didn’t feel like I could share it with people. When it came to releasing it, it was a cliff-diving moment.

Being signed to a major label was never an option because I knew having the time to find out who you are without pressure from other people is so important.

I do get star-struck, especially if they’re icons like Florence Welch. I met her briefly at a studio and I did not act cool.

I remember, a couple of years ago I was playing my first headline show, and it was to 100 people in St Pancras Old Church in London; and me and my mum were like, ‘We don’t know 100 people, how are we going to sell these tickets?’

Me and my mom were just watching the charts like, ‘Why isn’t it stopping?’ And now I’ve got a platinum disc in my bedroom.

There was an open mic night when I was about 11 years old and I went and I played the songs that I’d written in my bedroom and it was the first night where I felt like I was myself at school.

Every time I do something new, it makes me a bit stronger. Playing huge shows, being invited to play with Nile Rodgers after the Brits – all are mindblowing and I have a great team around me who are empowering. It makes all the difference.

Going to school, sort of not realising that caring about things was going to make me stand out and make me weird, and I think also being a redhead and being tall, bigger than the other kids… Anything that makes you different at school makes you a target.

There’s no expectations at all. Every single person that turns up to a show, you really appreciate them. Every single radio interview you do – everything.

I wasn’t cool at all when I was younger; no one wanted anything from me.

Selfies are one of those things I generally take but never post. It’s more to remember the moment or what I’m doing.

Sometimes, when we’re on tour, I’ll find an empty room or a corner and I’ll just sing. It heals something in me, be it some kind of isolation or loneliness. It’s really quite beautiful that singing can do that.